Puppy Love
by Asher Elric
Summary: When Kenshin brings home a Puppy, he and Kaoru become closer together. With a bit of mayhem included, Kenshin might be able to tell Kaoru how he feels about her.K&K Romance.


**Puppy Love**

**Kenshin/Kaoru**

**Rating - PG13**

**Summary - When Kenshin brings home a Puppy, he and Kaoru become closer together. With a bit of mayhem included, Kenshin might be able to tell Kaoru how he feels about her.**

**NOTE - I haven't read all of the RK Manga, so, sorry for any mistakes. I also, hate the Reflections OAV. I watched it, and hated it. Kaoru is just such a…..ugh….never mind. Anyway. Enjoy!**

_He'd have been slaughtered, he thought, as he doused onyx hair with the hot water once more and started rubbing it with the gentle Sakura soap that Kaoru favored. _Thinking back on his own training, Kenshin knew that his Sensei had put the fear into him early enough that the thought would never have passed through Kenshin's head.

Kaoru and Yahiko were two different people though and even if Kaoru was violent and taught Yahiko a lesson, he had never pulled such a stunt like this before. Kenshin's warring sides, though, couldn't find an even ground to stand upon. One side of him was slightly angry and disappointed that Yahiko would do such a thing, the other side was secretly dancing because that meant that he could wash Kaoru's hair. The goo was horrible, sticking to basically everything and making life miserable. Kenshin had a sneaking suspicion that Yahiko had a bit of help with the process. But, he wasn't about to ask Sano that particular question.

No, right now, the whole point was to wash Kaoru's hair and calm her down and promise to make it better. Maybe he'd suggest some chores to Yahiko, or some how talk to the boy about how badly he had upset Kaoru. She really did care for the boy. Maybe this was his way of showing it? Or he had just gotten some of streak of mischief in him and it had come out, this once. Yahiko usually just called her 'ugly' and they'd banter. Never had he set up a trick like this to humiliate his Sensei. Though, it was worse than if it had just been him, Sano and Yahiko at home.

The Ryku Dojo had burnt down the week before and they had needed a place to practice, they rented Kaoru's dojo from her, till such a time as they could rebuilt their own. Yahiko had pulled this trick on Kaoru in front of Ryku-san and his students. Kenshin didn't think that the Master of the Ryku Dojo blamed Kaoru - but, he did look a bit displeased. Kenshin had been surprised as a crying Kaoru had come to him and flung herself into his arms.

It was nice, to hold her, the goo, on the other hand smelt funny and he said that they should wash it out before it set. And that was what he was doing right then and there. Kaoru laid on her back on the porch, her long black hair trailed into a bucket of hot, soapy water. Kenshin had changed the bucket of water several times. He didn't mind though, he liked the feel of her hair, wet or dry, it was always a thing of beauty to him. Of course, Kaoru herself was a lovely woman. Sometimes he dreamt about her, in spurts, nothing to perverted enough to get him excited in a certain way. But he didn't care. These dreams consisted of them walking along a beach on a cloudy and rainy day, or gazing at the fireflies, maybe a soft, innocent kiss here or there.

He muted sigh made Kenshin look up from his enjoyable work; "Oro?"

"Kenshin-kun," Kaoru opened her wide blue eyes to gaze up into his own lavender ones.

"Do you think….do you think I'm a failure?" she asked. Hesitantly. Kenshin blinked and shook his head.

"Iie," he replied softly, "I think you are a good Sensei,"

"Than why does Yahiko hate me so much?" she wondered. She needed and answer. Kenshin, however, didn't have the right one. His answer and Yahiko's would be different, he knew. He cocked his head to the side, Kaoru started biting her lip. His hand vacated her silky tresses and traced her bottom lip.

"Kaoru-dono, I think that Yahiko made a mistake as all children are want to do. This time, he just pulled it at a very inappropriate time," Kenshin explained. She thought about it for a moment.

"I haven't trained him with other students," she sighed.

"Do you want more students?" Kenshin asked. She thought about it, his hand, to her dismay, left her lips. She wanted to catch his fingers and bring them to her lips again. His skin was so soft, for a swordsman.

"I do," she replied.

"I'll try, if I can help," Kenshin smiled and dunked his hands, once more, into the bucket of hot soapy water. Her hair was clean, but he wanted to enjoy this task. After all, there might have been a bit of goo hanging on somewhere, best to be thorough.

* * *

If it wasn't for Kenshin looking so serious, Sano knew that he would have laughed his ass off. But he didn't want to be on the receiving end of a Sou Ryu Sen Kaminari* - Kenshin was very protective and the bright glint of amber….Jou-chan must have been pretty upset.

"I have a few friends that owe me favors, maybe I can get one of them to put an add in the paper," Sano suggested. Not to mention that he could probably use that as an excuse to mooch off Kaoru a bit more and not have her get mad at him because of it. Kenshin's amber glint subsided and Sano hoped he was in the clear.

"Thank you, Sano-kun," Kenshin replied.

"No problem, Oro-chan," Sano replied. He gave a wave and started down the street. They had happened to meet perchance on the street as Sano was going gambling, Kenshin wouldn't be dragged along this day, that glint in his eyes had said as much. He hoped that Yahiko would have the good sense to avoid Kenshin, or to at least look sorry for what he did.

Now, to call in that favor - or be beat by a very pissed off Rurouni.

- - -

"No problem, Oro-chan," Sano had said before walking off, giving a shot wave good-by as he went about his business. An add would be great. Kenshin thought. More people would read it, swordsmanship was shortly becoming a lost art, and it would be nostalgic for some to learn it. To go back to their heritage despite the modern era. He sighed, but why did they have to call him THAT?

Of course, if he said anything Sano would just go on about it, it was best to ignore the nickname all together and hope that it doesn't slip if Hiko-Sensei ever came around, instead of being called Baka Deshi, he'd probably be called worse, Baka Oro - suddenly came to mind. He passed an alley way, a sudden crash and a cry of some length that made Kenshin feel horrible, came to his ears. He stopped and turned. In the alley way, wooden crates had crashed to the ground and the wailing came from the middle. Not able to ignore this sound, Kenshin slowly approached.

Once discerning that there was no danger of someone jumping out at him with the intent to kill - not that they could - Kenshin started moving crates till he found the source of the noise. A small puppy of pure snow, large brown eyes and small ears looked up at him. Kenshin smiled at the dog, the ki he felt rolling off the dog spoke volumes of pain. He held out a hand.

"Gomen Nasai, little one," the dog licked his hand trustingly and Kenshin took that as a sign to - carefully- pick the dog up. The dog snuggled into Kenshin chest and gi, despite the fact that it was dirty. Kenshin couldn't leave it here to starve.

"Kaoru-dono is going to have a fit," he muttered as he turned away from the alley and continued on home, "But, I'll take whatever abuse she dishes out, I think she'll like you," Kenshin amiably chattered to the dog as the twilight began to fade into evening.

* * *

Kaoru had wondered where Kenshin had been all that afternoon. She wasn't on speaking terms with Yahiko, who had decided to spend the night at Sano's on Ruffian Row than suffer through whatever treatment Kenshin might have up his sleeves.

Wondering around the house aimlessly, Kaoru entered the kitchen with the intent to make some tea. Humming brought her attention to the scrubbing tub outside that was used for the wash. But it didn't look as if the wash was being done. She had found Kenshin, but he never talked to the wash. Curious, and not yet angry that he had snuck around the dojo - she stepped onto the porch to see what Kenshin was doing.

Peaking over his shoulder, she saw the small dog surrounded by soapy, warm water, it lapped at Kenshin's hands as he washed the snowy fur; "Kawai!" Kaoru sighed. Kenshin chuckled and turned to her.

"Like him do you?" he asked.

"Hai, but Kenshin, where did you find it?" Kaoru asked.

"He was hurt, and I figured that this would be one stray that wouldn't talk back to you," he smiled.

"Demo, Kenshin, you don't talk back…well…." she amended, "sometimes,"

Kenshin's smile didn't change, he grabbed an old towel from the porch behind him and brought the dog out of the tub, drying it as he did so.

"I haven't name him," Kenshin explained, "Maybe you would?"

"Oh, Kenshin!" Kaoru smiled happily at the man of her dreams. It was so sweet of him to get her a puppy.

"What about….Akimoto?" Kaoru asked. Kenshin looked from her to the dog, then back to her.

"Or…Hatsuharu? We could shorten it to Hatsu," Kaoru said. Kenshin still looked unsure.

"I always liked Rei," Kaoru shrugged.

"Too girly," was Kenshin's reply, this made Kaoru giggle a little. Of course Kenshin wouldn't want the dog to have a girly name. It was a masculine thing and Kaoru decided to let Kenshin keep his masculinity, this time. Next time, it was all free game.

"What about…Kureno?"

One blink was all it took; "Oro-chan, I like that one," Kaoru giggled and took the small dog and towel, "Do you hear that, Kureno-chan?" she asked it, "Come on, we're going to bond and go to bed," she turned and gave Kenshin a soft peck on the cheek.

"Arigato, Oro-chan," and with that she turned and went inside.

Kenshin watched her as she shut the shoji, from her, the nickname wasn't so horrible. He longed to call her something closer than the suffix 'chan' could ever do, "Koishi".

He longed to call her Koishi…..

All of a sudden, he was very jealous of that bloody dog.

- - -

Tbc

- - -

*Sou Ryu Sen Kaminari "Thundering Twin Dragon Flash" - a sword technique using a variant form of Sou Ryu Sen. Used as a Botoujutsu attack. The attack is essentially two moves, first with the sheath- as to distract the opponent - then the sword, to finish the attack. Very effective.

*Kureno - Crimson Plains - I got the name from Rum and Monkey. They say it's a real Japanese name. I don't know. I just liked the meaning and it reminded me upon reading it of Kenshin's hair.

A/N - Okay, I don't usually write such…..obviously romantic drivel!!!!! Who am I kidding, we Kenshin fans have to write the obligatory K&K fan fic. Ah, this is mine. I don't know where it shall go, but review and tell me what you think of it anyway. Oh. and I do not know where I got Oro-chan from. It must have been a fan fic at the Akabeko......anyway. That wasn't my idea, but it's a cute one, ne?


End file.
